What to Expect
The B.C. Liberal Party is setting down the road of rebranding as the party begins consultations with memberships around renaming. Leader Kevin Falcon is looking for a new name that “reflects a diverse and inclusive big-tent coalition.”
The B.C. government will be announcing a new biomedical engineering building at the University of British Columbia.
On Thursday, FIFA will be announcing the 2026 World Cup cities and Vancouver is widely expected to be on the list.
The Week That Was
B.C.’s unemployment rate decreased substantially, dropping to 4.5 per cent in May from June’s 5.4 per cent. The decline equates to almost 100,000 new jobs in the province. The unemployment rate hasn’t been this low since July 2019. Despite this good news, the Statistics Canada numbers also showed that manufacturing in the province had the largest recorded job loss in a sector Canada-wide, losing 11,000 jobs or 5.8 per cent.
The provincial government is providing an advance payment of more than $200 million to support climate resilience and disaster recovery efforts as announced by the President of the Queen’s Privy Council and Minister of Emergency Preparedness, Bill Blair.
In an effort to increase housing market affordability, the B.C. government launched the speculation and vacancy tax (SVT) in 2018. Analysts Tsur Somerville and Jake Wetzel released the SVT’s first comprehensive review report, confirming that the SVT encouraged the lowering of home prices for renters and owners.
Orders in Council
OIC 310/2022 – Appoints Devon Marie Leybourne Black as a Ministerial Advisor in the Office of the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation.
OIC 315/2022 – Appoints Shane L. Berg as Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Forester within the Ministry of Forests, effective June 20, 2022.
OIC 318/2022 – Appoints Kanwaldeep Kaur Sandhu (Simmi K. Sandhu) as the Chair of the Civil Resolution Tribunal, effective June 13, 2022 – 2025.
